Abstract
We study to what extent cortical columns with their particular wiring boost neural computation. Upon a vast survey of columnar networks performing various real-world cognitive tasks, we detect no signs of enhancement. It is on a mesoscopic—intercolumnar—scale that the existence of columns, largely irrespective of their inner organization, enhances the speed of information transfer and minimizes the total wiring length required to bind distributed columnar computations towards spatiotemporally coherent results. We suggest that brain efficiency may be related to a doubly fractal connectivity law, resulting in networks with efficiency properties beyond those by scale-free networks.
- Received 15 October 2012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.108105
© 2013 American Physical Society
Synopsis
A Double Power Law Powers Brain
Published 7 March 2013
The efficient functioning of the brain cortex relies on a highly interconnected set of neuronal columns, which includes enough links between the most distant columns.
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